Chapter Text
Two years exactly since that fateful day in Kagoshima.
Two years since they defeated MAIK.
Two years since Reycho gained sentience.
Actually, there was some debate around the date; Reycho himself didn’t really know. When asked about it, all he did was shrug. Pochi couldn’t exactly blame him. If he were Reycho, he wouldn't want to think about it, either.
School had just ended and they were hanging out in the classroom, within which the teacher graciously allowed them to host their club. They were all spread out amongst themselves; Pochi hovered near Reycho, simply sitting next to him as he doodled on a blueprint.
Reycho had a stack of puzzles on the corner of his desk and he was in the process of constructing one. The pieces were big and bright—it was obvious which ones fit together. Reycho still spent a long time studying each piece, although to Pochi it seemed less so that he was struggling with the puzzle and more so that he was enjoying the imagery.
“Hey, Reycho, you know those puzzles are for babies, right?!”
Kansai leered over Reycho’s desk, sneering condescendingly with his hands on his hips. He was still just as scrawny and greasy as he was two years ago. And he still had yet to kick the baseball ensemble; he even wore a letterman jacket now. (He’d started claiming he was a jock—Pochi rolled his eyes at that). His belt was still too big, and he continued to wear the same hat without adjusting it, which Pochi took as his brain being so stunted his head still had yet to grow, even two years later.
Reycho looked up at Kansai and frowned. This was a common occurrence, and Pochi had witnessed it many times. Too many times.
“So? I like them.”
That was Reycho’s rebuttal. Kansai looked even less impressed. The others had begun to notice the brewing feud, growing silent and watching on in thinly-veiled disappointment.
“Puzzles are stupid,” Kansai declared. “But if you’re going to do them anyway, you might as well do a harder one. A toddler could solve that!”
Reycho looked like he might throw the puzzle piece in his hand at Kansai. As much as Pochi would like to see that, he understood it would probably be more horrific than it would be funny. (Reycho was banned from playing dodgeball, and for good reason).
Luckily, someone else piped up before it could escalate further.
“Knock it off,” Aniki said, his gruff baritone sounding deeply annoyed. “Leave Reycho alone.”
Kansai immediately shirked back. To him, Aniki was the Alpha wolf, of whom he wanted to be in the highest of graces. (Yes, he really called him that, and yes, Aniki hated it).
Aniki himself had changed a lot over the years; his voice had gotten deeper, and the hairs on his face had become more obvious. He still wore tank tops and tied sweaters around his waist which he never put on no matter how cold it was, but now he wore darker pants and sometimes band tees with ripped sleeves. Vanilla had cut his hair just recently, but his bangs still hung over his eyes, which made his dark irises look even darker yet.
“Yeah!” Pai chimed in. “Reycho can do whatever kind of puzzle he wants.”
“Hmph,” Kansai sulked. He crossed his arms. “I’m just saying it’s childish.”
“...I like the pictures,” Reycho mumbled absently.
An awkward silence turned the air in the room stale. Nobody wanted to address the fact that, yes, Reycho was rather childish, and his penchant for simple puzzles was not the only example. His scrawl was messy, he spoke short sentences, and he always wanted to play the games everyone else had already outgrown. Vanilla humoured him the most besides Pochi himself, but that was rather telling when you considered that Vanilla was the youngest of them, and a kid at heart.
Everybody loved Reycho. That was an unshakable fact. But there was no denying that they were growing up, seemingly too fast for him to catch up. (Internally, Pochi observed that Reycho seemed not to want to grow up, and he didn’t know how to feel about that).
“...Whatever,” Kansai finally said, breaking the silence. “Anyone wanna be my pitcher? I’m gonna go outside and practice.”
Which Pochi understood was Kansai code for “I feel frustrated about something and need to swing a bat around about it.”
Chuko's hand flew up immediately, which surprised no one. She was still much shorter than everybody else, but she’d kept her athletic streak after MAIK’s defeat and had quite the arm on her. Since that day she’d had yet to cut her hair, and now she had two fishtails that rested just below her knee.
Right now she had them tied together in one thick rope, and when she felt like it was getting in her way, she’d tie it into a bun. It made for a pretty gruesome weapon, and Pochi just hoped Kansai wouldn’t say anything worthy of Chuko whipping her head.
“I think the track teacher bought some new balls. Let’s go get them!”
“Really? Awesome!”
Bad mood temporarily forgotten, Kansai rushed past Chuko into the hall. From there he hollered for her to catch up. Chuko rolled her eyes fondly and ran after him. The sound of their footsteps disappeared down the corridor.
Pochi returned his eyes to his blueprint. He hadn’t noticed he’d still been scratching the paper, and now the image he’d been sketching had drifted slightly to the left. He’d have to erase it and start again.
Pochi reached for the eraser on the corner of his desk, but hit it with his hand and knocked it off instead, landing on the floor between him and Reycho. Pochi sighed and leaned down to grab it.
CLUNK!
Pochi and Reycho reached down to grab the eraser at the same time, bumping their heads together. Pochi thought he was seeing stars.
It was quiet for a moment. Then a small titter arose, until everyone in the room was laughing. Pochi held his head. Reycho just looked at him and smiled. Pochi knew he couldn’t keep his composure, so he looked away and hid his grin.